The present invention relates generally to improvements in measuring and methods and it relates particularly to an improved device and method for monitoring the temperature parameters in a frozen food storage space.
The proper storing of frozen foods requires a storage space continuously maintained at a sub-freezing temperature in order to prevent any even temporary thawing of the stored food. The thawing and refreezing of frozen food is often very deleterious to the food. It not only adversely affects the flavor and eating quality of the refrozen food but it could be a health hazard. In the domestic storage of frozen foods in freezers or the freezing sections of refrigerators, the temporary or inadequate overall cooling of the freezer space due to power failures or other reasons is a common occurrence. The cooling cycle in domestic food freezers is conventionally discontinuous. When the cooling mode is interrupted for an excessive period due to a defect or power failure, the interruption in cooling may be sufficiently long to result in a raising of the temperature in the freezing compartment resulting in thawing of the stored food with its undesirable effects. Periodic checking the temperature of the freezer space may be inadequate in determining the condition of the frozen food since the freezer space may have been adequately cooled following a period of warming and consequent thawing of the food which is thereafter refrozen. Thus, there is no apparent indication of the food having been thawed and refrozen. The freezer temperature at the time following the refreezing of the thawed food is no indication of the food's condition. A thermometer measuring the temperature range of the freezer space is unsatisfactory since, at maximum temperature, the period of higher temperature may have been too short to result in thawing or damage to the freezer-stored food.